World Travels
by RabidOstrichPen
Summary: Armin works at a coffee shop a little ways away from his school. He bumps into Jean as he's about to start his shift, and ends up becoming friends with him. Jean hopes they become more than that though, but he keeps that to himself at the moment.
1. Chapter 1

The school's bell rang, letting everyone know it was time to go home. Armin collected his things and went to his locker, shoving his homework in his backpack. He closed the locker and went out to his car. It was a pretty shitty car to be quite frank; it was just an old thing that his parents lent him so he could get to his job, school and back home. Since it did its job, Armin didn't really care what its condition was.

It was a couple minute's drive from his school to the coffee place he worked at. He only worked part-time, so he didn't work every day. He didn't mind working though, since it was definitely better than sitting at home doing nothing. He pulled into the parking lot, got out of the car and went up to the door, only to bump into Jean Kirschtein, a guy from school, who before colliding with Armin, was messing with his phone, so he obviously didn't see where he was going.

"Oh- Shit, sorry," he'd said quickly, looking up from his phone "you alright?"

Armin smiled reassuringly "Ah, don't worry about it, I'm fine."

Just then, Armin had realized who he was; he'd seen him at school, but he never really paid any attention to him. Jean must have been thinking the same thing for the next thing he said was "Hey, don't we go to the same school?" He asked, tilting his head a bit.

"Yeah, I think I have a few classes with you." Armin replied, nodding.

"Oh, that's cool." Jean said, smiling awkwardly shoving his hands in his pockets. They stood there for a few long, unpleasant, moments. "Uh, l-lemme get the door for you." He stuttered, holding the door open for him.

"Oh, um, thank you." Armin thanked him as he walked inside.

Armin walked into the back of the shop, putting on his uniform and his best smile (since that was one of the rules of the plaque on the wall, that nobody really took seriously, with the exception of him), and made his way out to behind the counter. Since the shop he worked at wasn't ever that busy, usually only one barista needed to be at the counter at once; and Armin arrived just in time for the last barista to finish their shift. To Armin's surprise, Jean was the next customer in line.

"I didn't know you worked here." Jean commented, raising his eyebrows.

"I'm here every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday after school. Is this your first time here or something?" Armin asked, looking up at him.

"Ah, this is my first time here , yeah. I decided to come check it out. It looked neat." He responded, while looking at the menu "Um.. Do you serve hot cocoa here? I'm not a very big fan of coffee, actually." He asked.

Armin laughed a bit as he wrote down his order "Yes, we serve hot cocoa. But you _did_ know this was a coffee shop, right? Anyways, is that all?"

"Yeah, that's all I'm gonna have." He said, laughing along with Armin awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Alright then," Armin said "you can just wait off to the side while I work on your order."

He nodded and stepped over to the side. While Armin worked, he couldn't help but feel like Jean was staring at him; which was kind of uncomfortable. By the time he finished making the hot cocoa, Jean was looking at some of the titles of the books on the shelves. "Jean, your order is ready." Armin announced, while punching in the cost of his drink, and then printing out the receipt.

* * *

Jean paid for his drink and thanked Armin, and went to go sit down at an empty table. He couldn't help but sneak a few peeks over at the blond every once in a while. Jean had quite a big crush on him; that's been going on for a while now. He was pretending to not really know him out front when they bumped into each other, so Armin didn't think he was weird. He didn't know if it actually worked or not; but he hoped it did.

As soon as he finished his drink, he noticed Armin looked kind of bored just standing there, since not many customers were coming in; so he thought he could maybe strike up a conversation with him. As he walked over to him, Armin looked up and asked "Do you need anything?"

"Ahah, no, you just looked bored so I thought I could help with that maybe." Jean said, smiling a bit, and trying to act naturally.

"Oh, I see. You don't have to-"

Jean cut him off "_Nononono_ I insist! I don't really have anything to do at home, Anyways, so I'd much rather prefer this."

"O-okay then." Armin said quietly as he raised an eyebrow.

_ God, he was so cute. _"So anyways, I heard you're living on your own for a while? Like, I'm not stalking you, don't worry, but some people were talking about it at school." _Shit, shit shit shit that's too creepy sounding._

Armin didn't seem to notice however, as his blue eyes lit up with excitement "Yeah! My parents are traveling around the world, and they keep sending me postcards back! It's really exciting!" He kept going on and on about how amazing the rest of the world is and how he wants to travel around it himself one day. Jean couldn't help but start smiling and agreeing with most of what he was saying.

They'd found themselves staying there for quite a while chatting about a variety of things, such as hobbies, favorites, and numerous other things that you talk about while getting to know someone. The occasional customer came by though, and so Jean would politely step out of the way and wait. This went on for a couple hours, until eventually Armin checked his phone and said "Oh, my shift is almost over."

"Oh, really? Time sure went by pretty quickly, I guess."

"Hah, yeah." Armin agreed.

Just then, the next shift worker came in, so Armin told Jean he'd be right back, and went to go change out of his uniform. Jean sighed happily; that was one of the most fun times he's had in a while. Armin came back out a minute or two later and the two left the shop.

"Hey," Jean stopped Armin outside the front door "wanna exchange numbers?"

The blond blinked before nodding and saying "Sure."As he smiled and took out his phone, handing it to the taller boy so he could punch his number in, as he did the same with his.

"Okay, so.. See you at school tomorrow?" Jean asked, looking up from his phone at Armin.

"Yup! See you!" He confirmed as he got into his car, waved at Jean, and drove away.

Jean waved back and went over to his own car (which wasn't any less shitty than Armin's by the way) and slumped down in the seat, smiling to himself. Armin was just as pleasant to be around as he thought he'd be. He was excited to get to school tomorrow so he could talk to him again. But for now, he started up his car and drove home, pretty sure that nothing could make him happier at the moment.

* * *

Okay! So this is one of the first fanfictions I've ever attempted to write, and the first thing I've published on . I'm an amateur at writing, so constructive criticism is greatly appreciated! I apologize if I've made Jean and Armin too OOC!

-EDIT-

I realize that TAB is not working for me for some reason, and I apologize for that! I am aware that indentations go before each paragraph! Thank you! ;o;/


	2. Chapter 2

The teacher announced that everyone could go to lunch now; so the class got up and funneled out the door. Jean knew that he and Armin had the same lunch hour, because he always saw him sitting alone; usually reading a book. As he got out of the lunch line, he walked over to the table Armin was sitting at. "Can I sit here?" Jean asked, waiting for a response.

Armin looked up at him, dazed for a minute, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. He seemed to become aware of that pretty quickly, so he soon blurted out "S-sure! You don't need to ask."

With that, Jean set his tray across from him, and sat down. Armin put his book, down and stared at the table, awkwardly, nibbling on some pieces of food, as if he didn't know what to say. Jean decided to break this silence. "So, what were you reading?" he asked, gesturing towards the closed book on the table.

"Oh.. It's not really anything you'd be interested in.." Armin replied, picking up the book and flipping through a few pages; but after looking up at Jean again and seeing he wasn't going to get a response, he continued, showing the cover to him. "It's a book about some cool places that nobody really talks about."

"That's kinda cool," Jean said, looking at the cover, "what are some of the places?"

Armin seemed to light up at the question. He showed Jean a lot of pictures from the book, and read out descriptions of some of them. Jean was enjoying it as well; seeing Armin this happy was almost like a blessing to him. "Oh, uh, by the way," he started, "do you mind if I stop by the coffee shop again after school?"

Armin stared at him for a moment. "Of course you can. You don't need to ask." He said, tilting his head a bit.

"O-okay, then!" Jean managed, rubbing the back of his neck, laughing a bit. "We can meet up there if you want, maybe? Of course we don't have to if you don't want to." he added quickly.

"Sure, we can do that." Armin nodded, smiling.

"I might take a while getting there though; my car broke down after I got home yesterday, so I have to walk there." The taller boy informed.

Armin blinked, and then offered "I can give you a ride, if you want."

Jean's heart skipped a beat. "You don't have to! I'll be fine."

"Oh, no, it's okay," the blond commented "really."

"Are you sure?"

"Yup!" Armin replied, grinning. "We can meet up near the school's entrance if you want. Is that okay?"

"That's okay with me." Jean responded, a smile forming on his face.

* * *

Armin stood outside the school's entrance, where he and Jean decided they would meet. Armin didn't know why Jean started hanging around him so much, but he didn't mind. It was nice to have a friend, for a change. His phone buzzed, so he opened it up to see he got a text from his boss. This was unusual.

_Hello, Armin. I'm just letting you know you have a day off for today. Thanks for doing so much hard work._

Armin blinked; he didn't really need a day off, but he figured he wouldn't complain, anyways. He put his phone away, and looked up to see Jean a little ways away. He waved at him, since Jean couldn't seem to find him in the crowd of taller people. Jean must have seen him at last, because he came over a few seconds later.

"My boss just texted me, saying I have the day off." Armin said, looking up at Jean. "We could probably still go to the coffee place, though, if that's okay."

"Yeah, that's fine with me." Jean agreed, smiling. This meant he'd get to spend more time with Armin, now that he didn't have to work.

"Alright, I guess we can get going now. My car's this way." Armin grabbed onto Jean's wrist, leading him through the crowd of students. Jean's heartbeat quickened dramatically, and his face felt hot, but he said nothing. Armin let go once they were out of the crowd. Once they got to Armin's car, he turned around and said "You can put your stuff in the back seat if you wa- Are you okay?"

He raised an eyebrow "What?"

"Your face is all red. Are you sick?"

Jean stood, confused for a minute, and then realized his face must be as red as a beet right now. "Ah! It's nothing I'm just- I have this-" he couldn't think of anything to say "I'm fine." he finally managed to choke out.

Armin stared at him as if he'd grown another head. "Are you sure?" He spoke quite slowly.

Jean nodded, laughing nervously, getting into the passenger seat after Armin unlocked the door. He had to adjust his seat quite a bit, so his head didn't hit the roof of the vehicle.

"Ah, sorry about that." Armin said, smiling sheepishly.

"It's fine!" Jean dismissed the apology, fastening his seat belt, as Armin did the same.

As they pulled out of the parking lot and onto the street, an awkward silence fell apon them, once again. Unexpectedly, Armin broke that silence. "Hey, Jean?" the smaller boy asked, keeping his eyes on the road.

"Y-yeah?"

"Thanks for sitting with me at lunch today."

Jean looked over at Armin, and noticed his cheeks were tinted pink. "It's.. no problem." he said, a smile slowly stretching across his face.

"Also, I can pay for our stuff, once we get there."

"You don't have to do that! I can pay for my own. I mean, you gave me a ride, so it'd only be fair." Jean protested.

"No, it's fine really," Armin pushed on. "employees get discounts!"

"You sure?"

"Yup! It's fine." He smiled at Jean.

A few minutes later, they pulled into the shop's parking lot and went inside; Jean holding the door for Armin. They bought their drinks and sat down at a table.

"Thanks for paying for our stuff," Jean thanked Armin. "and giving me a ride here."

Armin beamed; he loved being able to be a dependable person, and he hated the contrary. "It's no problem! Also, if you need a ride home, I can give you one."

"Ah, I think I might take you up on that offer." He chuckled, taking a sip of his drink.

The two spend a few hours conversing, and finding more out about each other, their friendship growing ever stronger; making jokes and telling stories until late afternoon.

Armin looked outside, noticing the sun was just beginning to set. Jean does the same, and the two just sit there for a few long, quiet moments, gazing at the yellow-tinted sky. He glances over at Armin; a dreamy expression extremely noticeable on the blond's face.

"We should probably get going soon, before it gets dark. This place looks like it's about to close, anyway." Jean said, snapping Armin out of his daze.

"Oh, uh, sure." He agreed, taking out his phone, and checking the time.

They threw their garbage away, and went out to Armin's car. "Okay, you're going to have to point me in the direction of your house." Armin said, fastening his seat belt and starting up the car. And so, Jean did that.

By the time they arrived at his house, Jean sat for a moment- which confused Armin- before leaning over as far as he could, and he hugged him. Armin, who had no idea what was going on, decided to hug back, so it wouldn't get awkward. His heartbeat quickens and he can feel his face get red.

A couple moments pass.

"Jean..?"

Jean suddenly lets go. "S-sorry! Thank you for the ride!" he stutters and grabs his stuff and gets out of the car as quickly as he could, running up to his front door, but managing to trip over right in front of his front door in the process; landing right on his face.

Armin views this entire show, dumbfounded, until he sees Jean trip over, yelping a little as soon as he falls. He jumps out of his car and runs up to him. "Jean? Are you okay?" he asked, helping him sit up. Jean just blinked a few times and smiled sheepishly at Armin, before cursing at a bloody nose from the fall.

"I'll be fine, don't worry." He assured Armin as he gathered all his things, thanked Armin again, and apologized for getting him worried. "See you at school tomorrow!" he grinned as he disappeared behind the door.

Armin stood there for a minute, wondering how he could be so nervous one minute, and then really confident the next. As he was walking back to his car, he couldn't help thinking about that long hug a few moments before; and what that feeling was. It was a warm feeling; it made him feel like there were butterflies in his stomach. The strangest thing of all, though, was that all this occurred when he was thinking of Jean.

* * *

Ah ok! I hope chapter two was okay! I think I accidentally made both of them really OOC this time, so I apologize for that! Also I think I may be rushing things, so I apologize for that, too! Lastly, on Friday I will be going on vacation for a week, so I probably wont be able to publish any chapters for this, and I apologize for this! I will probably work on chapter 3 tomorrow, but I have no promises that it will be uploaded by tomorrow, either. Thank you for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

Hello! I'm so sorry this took so long, but thanks for being patient! From now on, I'll be writing in a first person mode!

* * *

_**Two months later.**_

We sat at my kitchen table, working on our homework. Jean and I had this kind of routine going on, where we'd either go to the coffee shop, his house, or my house after school. We usually just worked on homework, and then mess around; customarily just watching TV for a few hours or something. One time, we had watched a movie, and I fell asleep. I literally have no idea how I ended up leaning on his shoulder by the time I woke up, since I was on the other side of the couch before. When I did wake up, though, I yelped and had slid back over to my side of the couch, causing Jean to apologize abundantly. How embarrassing.

I peeked over at him. He looked so concentrated on his work, I couldn't help but admire that. I sighed, soft enough so that he couldn't notice. I realized that I had feelings for him a few weeks ago; and had just started to realize how attractive he really was. His face was quite long, but just enough to look _quite_ handsome. He had a very finely shaped jaw, and _oh_ so straight teeth. Not to mention, he was pretty pleasant to be around; seeing as he was one of the only people to not pick on me every time they saw me, and he had even _defended_ me against some of those people.

My gaze dropped down back to my papers; bringing my pencil to where I left off, continuing my work.

_Knock-knock._

I jumped, startled by the sudden noise. Jean must have heard it, too, for he looked up as well. He gave me a confused look, and an 'Are you okay?' as if wondering why such a thing would scare me.

"Sorry," I laughed, bringing a hand to the back of my neck, getting up "not many people visit besides you, so I'm not used to that sound, I guess." I saw him smile as he looked back down at his homework.

I walked out of the kitchen, and through the dining room, to my front door. I unlocked it, opened it, and gasped.

* * *

"Mom! Dad!"

I looked up at the sound of Armin's voice, and blinked. Weren't his parents on a trip? I thought for second more, frowning. Should I go out there? Or stay here? They don't know me, so he would have to introduce me. _Shit, why do things like this have to be so difficult and awkward?_

I decided to walk out there. Sort of. I stood in the doorway. I saw Armin, hugging his parents, laughing, and probably on the verge of crying, and my eyes widened. He looked so happy. I couldn't help noticing that he looked almost like a perfect mixture of both of his parents. He had his mother's nose and big eyes; and his father's blond hair and eye color.

Armin must have noticed me standing here, for he broke away from his parents, and decided to introduce me.

"This is Jean! He's the one I told you guys about in my letters. He usually comes over after school to work on homework with me." I flinched. He wrote about me in his letters?

Before I knew it, though, Mrs. Arlert was coming towards me, her arms outstretched, and tears in her eyes. As soon as she reached me, I stiffened, not exactly how to act in this situation.

"Um.." I managed, wondering what the hell was going on. Mr. Arlert just threw his head back and laughed heartily, as Armin tried to pull his mother off of me.

"I'm sorry," she chuckled as she wiped some tears from her eyes "I just want to thank you for being friends with Armin. He's always had some trouble with being picked o-"

"Mom.." Armin cut her off, frowning a bit.

I grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of my neck "It's no trouble, really! He's is really fun to be around."

Armin's eyes lit up at that, and- holy shit- is he blushing?

Mr. Arlert looked at his watch and announced "It's almost time for dinner! Jean, would you like to stay? We won't be having anything particularly fancy, since there _is_ nothing particularly fancy in our house at the moment," he took a moment to laugh at that- was it supposed to be funny? "we'll probably only have sandwiches and chips."

I shook my head "It's fine, I can get something at home later."

"Are you sure? We don't mind at all."

"Well.." My gaze went back to Armin, and I shrugged, mouthing the words 'Can I?' to him.

He must have been a good lipreader, thank god, because he smiled and nodded.

"I guess I can stay for a while." I said, rocking on my heels.

* * *

Jean sat down next to me on the sofa. My mom said we could all just eat dinner out in the living room, since all of our school stuff was on the kitchen table.

I tried to ask my parents about their travels, but they just kept finding their way out of answering them, and asking about Jean instead. I guess I'll have to ask them later. Jean looked sort of uncomfortable after a while, and I felt bad for him; being bombarded question after question. By the time he finished his sandwich, I leaned over and asked if he wanted to go somewhere else. He replied almost immediately, nodding his head frantically. I chuckled, and lead him up to my room, much to the protest of my parents.

Once we were in my room, I immediately started cleaning up a bit, apologizing for the mess. I turned to look at him. He gaze was wandering around my room, mostly at all the maps pinned on the wall, and posters of famous locations. "A-ah, sorry about all that. It's borderline obsession.." I laughed weakly, continuing to tidy up.

He just shook his head "No.. It's pretty cool actually."

I glanced at him for a long moment, and smiled, relived. "I used to travel a lot when I was younger." I finished putting things away and leaned against my desk. "I can show you some pictures if you want."

"Sure."

I turned around and dug around in my desk drawer, looking for the small stack of photos; unaware that Jean found himself staring at my ass. I turned back around, having finally found the pictures; to see Jean had sat down on my bed, and was looking off to the side a bit, trying to hide a blush. I stood, confused for a moment, but then the realization hit me. I tried to act oblivious to it as I sat next to him, spreading the photos out on my lap.

"I looked kinda stupid when I was little." I laughed, looking over all the pictures of a younger me, smiling in front of various landmarks.

"I think you look kind of cute." _Look. Present tense. _

I refused to look up as I felt my cheeks heat up. We sat in silence, looking through the pictures, before Jean decided to break that silence

"Jesus, how many places have you been to?"

"Ah.. A lot, I guess. I lost count a while ago." I laughed a bit.

"How come you didn't go with your parents on their trip?"

I looked up at the ceiling and sighed wistfully, "My parents wanted me to get more decent education, since I was going into high school. They did a pretty decent job being my teachers when I would've been in elementary and middle school, but they just decided to have me stay here, I guess."

A few seconds passed. I saw Jean bring his hand to the back of his neck, out of the corner of my eye.

"It's... It's not much, but maybe.. We can go for a d-drive this weekend..? I-if you want to. We don't have to if you don't want to."

I peered over at him. He was turned away from me, his hands gripping the sheets of my bed. "Sure, we can." I reply, quietly, slowly. I saw him relax, and felt his hands unclench. Did.. Did he feel the same way that I felt about him? It sure as hell seemed like it. I looked downwards and smiled, some hellish idea finding it's way into my head.

"Hah, it's kinda like a date." I laughed. _What the hell? _Why am I saying this?

Jean whipped his head around so fast, I thought for a moment that his neck would break. His eyes were wide open, and his face flushed. "D-do you mean that?"

I squeaked, and faced him; I didn't think he would say that. He quickly looked away, "Sorry."

"N-no, it's fine." I replied. Of course it was fine. If anything, it was _better_ than fine. He basically just confirmed the fact that he felt the same way about me that I felt about him. Well, I hope, anyways.

A few seconds more of uncomfortable silence later, two strong hands grasped my shoulders, and I was turned to face Jean. "C-can you please consider it as a date?" He half-shouted.

"Are you- Are you asking me out?" I stammered. I couldn't even believe this was happening.

"No! Ye- I don't know!" He hung his head low and sighed, not letting go of my shoulders. "I've.. I've had a crush on you for a long time," He hesitated before continuing "longer than we've been friends. I-if you don't feel the sa-"

"Yes." I cut him off, causing him to look up again. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes for a moment, before opening them again, staring Jean straight in the eyes. "I'll consider it as a date."

He stared at me, seemingly in disbelief of the situation; before smiling, pulling me into a hug. I stiffened. He's hugged me before; but this felt different. It was happier. I melted into the hug, wrapping my arms around him. A few moments later, a question popped into my head.

"So.. Are we like, going out..? Are we b-boyfriends..?" I asked quietly, pulling back from the hug.

Jean's eyes darted around, before asking "Um.. Can we be?"

My heart was thumping inside my chest. I smiled and nodded; speechless.

He breathed out, relieved, and grinned. "Great." was all he said, before embracing me again.

* * *

aahhHHH finally i've finished chap 3! i'm so so so SO sorry it took so long! thank you so much for being so patient! unfortunately, i will be going on another vacation tomorrow, but it's only for 3 days! so I'll work on chapter 4 once I get back from that! thank you so much for reading! and thank you so much for so many great reviews! they're greatly appreciated!


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